Laboratory INstrument Computer
<computer>
(LINC) A computer which was originally designed in1962 byWesley Clark,Charles Molnar, Severo Ornstein andothers at theLincoln Laboratory Group, to facilitatescientific research. With itsdigital logic andstoredprograms, the LINC is accepted by theIEEE Computer Societyto be the World's firstinteractivepersonal computer.
The machine was developed to fulfil a need for betterlaboratory tools by doctors and medical researchers. It wouldsupplant the 1958Average Response Computer, and wasdesigned for individual use.Led by William N. Papian and mainly funded by theNationalInstitute of Health, Wesley Clark designed the logic whileCharles Molnar did the engineering. The first LINC wasfinished in March 1962.In January 1963, the project moved toMIT, and then toWashington University (in St. Louis) in 1964.The LINC had a simpleoperating system, four "knobs" (whichwas used like amouse), aSoroban keyboard (foralpha-numeric data entry), twoLINCtape drives and a smallCRT display. It originally had onekilobit ofcorememory, but this was expanded to 2 Kb later. The computerwas made out ofDigital Equipment Corporation (DEC) hardwaremodules.Over 24 LINC systems had been built before late 1964 whenDEC began to sell the LINC commercially.After the introduction of thePDP-8,Dick Clayton atDEC produced a rather frightening hybrid of the LINC andPDP-8 called a LINC-8. This really was not a verysatisfactory machine, but it used the new PDP-8 style DECcards and was cheaper and easier to produce. It stilldidn't sell that well.In the late 1960s, Clayton brought the design to its pinnaclewith the PDP-12, an amazing tour de force of the LINC concept;along with about as seamless a merger as could be done withthe PDP-8. This attempted to incorporateTTL logic into themachine. The end of the LINC line had been reached.Due to the success of the LINC-8,Spear, Inc. produced aLINC clone (since the design was in thepublic domain).The interesting thing about the Spearmicro-LINC 300 wasthat it usedMECL II logic. MECL logic was known for itsblazing speed (at the time!), but the Spear computer ran atvery modest rates.In 1995 the last of the classic LINCs was turned off forthe final time after 28 years of service. This LINC hadbeen in use in the Eaton-Peabody Laboratory of AuditoryPhysiology (EPL) of the Massachusetts Eye and EarInfirmary.On 15 August 1995, it was transferred to the MITComputerMuseum where it was put on display.LINC/8, PDP-12.Lights out for last LINC.["Computers and Automation", Nov. 1964, page 43].Last updated:1999-05-20
Nearby terms:
Laboratory INstrument Computer ♦Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench
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